Guest Ale for February 2018 Citra Ale

Guest Ale for February 2018 at The Bell Murrow

This guest ale for February 2018 is Citra Ale brewed by The Hop Back Brewery

Citra Hops

The Hop Back Brewery have always been famous for their hoppy golden beers, but Citra Ale comes with a transatlantic twist.

This guest ale is packed with American Citra and English Pioneer hops, this thirst quencher has a powerful grapefruit and lemon taste, really crisp, dry and bitter. Originally brewed as one of our monthly specials in 2013, it proved so popular, they’ve made it a permanent fixture! Refreshing but extremely moreish.

Citra Ale is brewed using a mix of extra pale barley malt and maize, which gives a delicate crisp and clean backbone to the beer, so it can really show off the pungent American hops.

History of Citra Hops:

The success of craft breweries and craft beer has made new aroma and flavour hops very popular in the UK. Citra has been at the forefront of that popularity. Citra hop’s main attraction is a fruity citrus character.

Citra came from a cross made by hop breeders Gene Probasco and John I. Haas in 1990. Its lineage includes U.S. Tettnanger, Hallertau Mittelfruh, Brewer’s Gold, East Kent Goldings, and an unknown variety, which has been attributed to the American wild hop (ABB Vol. 34 Issue 2).

Citra Hops

In the course of the 12+ year breeding program, the rights to this hop was held by three different big breweries. Ultimately each passed on the hop, finding no real use for it. In 2007, the Hop Breeding Company started to shop it around to craft breweries. There was some interest and in that same year Widmer Brothers, along with Deschutes and Sierra Nevada, co-funded acreage for the new hop.

Widmer Brothers would be the first to use the hop when they created a draft-only pale ale and entered it in the 2008 World Beer Cup. The new beer garnered them a gold medal and a 5 year supply contract for the hop was quickly signed.

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